Six Alternatives to Reading Logs

Six Alternatives to Reading Logs  by Shaelynn Farnsworth

Ready to spice up and excite students about reading? Here are 6 alternatives to reading logs that might do just that.

1.                   1.  BookSnaps – Have your students share what they are reading on Seesaw or Canvas. Students can snap              a picture of the books they read and annotate about them then post on Seesaw or Canvas.

 2.  Book Blogs – Have students read and share what they read with a global audience. Book Blogs can 

      help promote reading and writing using a digital resource.

 3.  Vlogs – Along with Book Blogs, students can create Vlogs and share what they read. Through short 

      videos, a student’s demonstration of understanding and progress can be clearly illustrated.

        4.  Passage, Connection, Illustration – Make reading social again with PCI! Have students choose a 

             powerful passage from a book that caught their attention, move them or made them wonder. Next, 

             have them think about a connection from that part then have them explain how they personally 

             connected to the text, how it reminded them of something, or how it was similar to another text. 

             Finally, have the students draw or create a picture or infographic that represents this book.

         5. Give Me 5 – Have students choose 5 quotes from the book that best illustrated the author’s message, 

              insight into a character, or the conceptual understanding. These quotes will lead to reflection and 

              discussion in the classroom.

         6. Concept Mapping –Give students the opportunity to make their thinking visible. Concept Mapping 

              allows readers to connect characters and events to larger concepts by synthesizing, evaluating, and 

              organizing their thought. This activity moves students past the surface-level comprehension to 

              digging deeper into text.

Lifelong readers are not made my minute tracking; lifelong readers are cultivated through social experiences with the stories they read!

On Demand Writing Has a Purpose

I wanted to share Mindy Hoffar’s ideas about “On Demands” with you. She reaffirms the importance of using them to learn what your students are already doing in their writing and to plan instruction that will move them forward.                                                                                                                                         

I don’t know if you have ever watched a group of six-year old children play soccer for the first time, but it’s a little like watching bees swarm around the hive. Everywhere the soccer ball goes, the kids swarm to the ball falling all over each other trying to get to it. And here’s what we know. With the help of a coach and lots of practice learning the skills of soccer, these youngsters will learn to play the game, but for that first time no one expects them to know what to do. It’s just a joy to see WHAT they can do!

As teachers, we need to have that same attitude about giving pre-writes or “on demand” writing when we begin a new unit of study in writing. Time is a legitimate concern, but what do we lose if we choose to skip the prompt? Last year around February I had the FUN of being in a kindergarten class when they began a unit of study on “how to” writing. They were doing the “on demand” writing prompt that day. The only instruction given to them before they began writing was to show them a big book that was a “how to” text.  They were told that they were now going to write books that teach people how to do things. They were asked to think of something they could teach someone how to do and then they were given a blank book. Off they went to write!

Out of 20 kids, some kids actually wrote “how to” books. Some wrote personal stories (which is what they had just finished learning) about a time when they learned how to do something, and some just wrote stories that were not related to “How to” writing at all. It was interesting to see that some writers used transitions words that signal this kind of writing. We could see which students got to work right away, which took some time but then got going, and which wrote very little or drew nothing.

This was wonderful information for the teacher to begin the new unit: Who might need more help with structure of text, who might need help getting started, who might need guidance on elaboration since they already had the structure down. So even though we may fear that a pre-writing prompt seems like a waste of time, it isn’t. And the best part of the pre-writing prompt is that we can save it. When we finish the unit, the students can do a post unit prompt or use their current writing in the genre to compare how their writing has grown. Not only can the teacher assess growth at the end of the study, but the young writers can do that as well. They love comparing the two writings to see how much more they know.

So, just like when we watch young inexperienced soccer players, we need to stop worrying about what our writers don’t know yet and instead be surprised and delighted by what they do know.